2009 Newsletter

The last three years since bringing Veteran Auto Lamps to NY in the US have been full of twists, turns and fun! Such as….

Veteran Auto Lamps has continued the fine tradition started by Ken & Trish Jonathan in New Zealand. We work to provide the highest quality work possible.

George has been busy juggling projects and is really enjoying the challenge of repair, restoration and new part production.

We have continued to expand our contacts for materials and suppliers, which has allowed us to ship more products each year...to places including Australia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Scotland, UK as well as all over the United States.

Kathy successfully relocated the VAL website and domains to the US from New Zealand – no small feat. Please advise if you notice any issues with the website and be sure to copy the web address of the specific page from your browser george.kathy@veteranautolamps.com

See Below for Updates on:

Grey & Davis 8” Bullet Style Headlights

Rushmore 6-1/2” Spotlight Mounting Hardware

Rushmore 12” Headlights

Corcoran Early Buick Headlights Parts

Franklin Trek notes

WANTED:
Orders for

8” Gray & Davis Bullet Headlamps

Veteran Auto Lamps has had some interest in early Gray & Davis bullet-style headlamps with an 8” lens and with the use of excellent pattern lamps has produced the spinning and casting tooling to reproduce these …see the photos below. Only the latch and hinge tooling remains to be done. (See photos after 12” Rushmore below)
Both pre-1906 and post-1906 bullet lamps can be made as only the hardware, door and reflector changed in the later version.

The glass reflectors and lenses have been made and we completed making Grey & Davis bullet headlight spinning formers last year. This enabled completion of a set of lights for Mr. Irving Sims.

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WANTED:
Orders for

Rushmore 6-1/2” Spotlight Mounting Hardware

After long awaited development, we now have solid brass pivot-mounting brackets for the 6-1/2” Rushmore spotlight lamps based on an excellent original pattern we were able to procure.

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The photos above show a sand casting method yoke pivot on the right of each photo that did not meet our standards for accurate size and detail. On the left of each photo is our original nickel-plated pattern. The photos below show the original nickel-plated pattern on the left and the new reproduction on the right for comparison.

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Below left photo is an original 4-hole Rushmore spotlight pivot base bracket mount right with our unpolished reproduction left. The right photo is a 3-hole unpolished spotlight pivot base bracket mount.

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We also have an original cone shape spotlight pivot base bracket mount that was likely used for nautical / boat or fire truck spotlight mounting. We have not tooled up for this but can – please let of know of your interest at george.kathy@veteranautolamps.com

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WANTED:
Orders for

Rushmore 12” Headlights

We have an excellent original Rushmore 12” pattern headlight and are seeking orders to reproduce more. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest lamp ever produced by Rushmore. Please contact us if you or someone you know is interested in these big beautiful headlights which are excellent for large cars / motor vehicles including fire trucks or other trucks!

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WANTED:
Orders for

8” Gray & Davis Bullet Headlamps

Original Grey & Davis Bullet style headlamps used as patterns:

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WANTED:
Orders for

Corcoran Early Buick Headlights

We have successfully manufactured new doors, jambs and backs for the early Buick Corcoran headlights for use in lamps requiring repair.

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Franklin Trek Notes:

In July/August 2008 we attended the HH Franklin Automobile Club’s annual Franklin Trek hosted at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, NY USA outside of Syracuse. Franklin automobiles were fine quality luxury vehicles of their day with features well ahead of their time...most notably air-cooled motors and substantial use of aluminum between 1902 and 1934. Ironically, Kathy’s dad worked at Franklin Air Cooled Motors for a time and in the old HH Franklin Car Co. factory building after automobile production ceased.

At the weeklong event George gave a Tech Talk to about 50 interested Franklin Trekkers. His talk covered topics such as: what to look for in purchasing brass lamps, generators plus how metal spinnings, castings and stampings are made. George also spoke about chemical cleaning and how residues left in fonts, behind reflectors and in rolled edges can deteriorate metal from the inside out long after the piece has been removed from the chemical bath and remain invisible until repair / restoration is attempted. This is a good reason to allow a professional to clean oxidation from metal.

During the Trek, George, Kathy and Alex visited the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich, NY. Kathy rode back from Norwich in a 1910 – 4-seat open Franklin – meaning no windshield, no doors and no roof! Kathy’s driver pulled over to assist a car that had run out of gas for several minutes. After calling for fuel and heading back to campus, it started raining before arriving back at the college. We pulled in under an open-sided tent JUST as the skies opened up full force for the next ten minutes! This photo shows the 1910 and our driver.

George drove our late model car and was trying to follow our son Alex a few cars back sitting in the rumble seat. Alex arrived back before Kathy. George lost sight of Alex’s vehicle, took some country detours trying to find either of us and arrived back at the Trek in the late model after Alex and Kathy arrived in the old Franklins! Later that night the three of us were passengers in the 1910 open Franklin again for a ride along Cazenovia Lake and country roads…looking up at the sky and enjoying somewhat crisp fresh night air.